Online Gaminghttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/14588/all
enReport: YouTube to Acquire Twitch for $1 Billionhttp://www.adweek.com/videowatch/report-youtube-acquire-twitch-1-billion-157825
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/twitch-logo-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Is YouTube making a play in the livestreamed video game world? It has offered to buy eSports streaming portal Twitch for more than $1 billion, according to a <a href="http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/youtube-to-acquire-videogame-streaming-service-twitch-for-1-billion-sources-1201185204/" target="_blank">Variety report</a>. The deal, which would be the largest acquisition ever for YouTube, could be announced soon.</p>
<p>
However, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304422704579570601736756672">The Wall Street Journal</a> said the companies&#39; talks are only preliminary. A purchase price has not been revealed, and the WSJ said that Twitch was also considering raising funds instead of selling.</p>
<p>
Both YouTube and Twitch declined to comment on the reports.</p>
<p>
Twitch, spun off from Justin.TV in June 2011, has become a popular online hub for gaming-related video content. It averages <a href="http://www.adweek.com/videowatch/video-game-streaming-site-twitch-goes-mobile-156381" target="_blank">45 million unique visitors a month</a>&nbsp;who watch about 106 minutes of livestreamed video a day, according to the company.</p>
<p>
But YouTube might be most interested in Twitch&#39;s ability to keep viewers glued to ads. The site gets 400 million to 500 million ad impressions a month and an impressive 90-plus percent completion rate. The industry average is a little less than 50 percent, per media mobile ad serving and analytics company Celtra.</p>
<p>
Advertisers have been wary of YouTube, an issue that parent company Google is trying to address with <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/youtube-will-let-brands-target-top-5-percent-its-videos-157396" target="_blank">Google Preferred</a>, a new premium offering that allows brands to place promos against the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/youtubes-google-preferred-has-1-ad-tier-too-157507" target="_blank">top 1 percent and 5 percent of YouTube&#39;s videos</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Twitch raised <a href="http://www.adweek.com/videowatch/twitch-lands-20-million-series-c-funding-152801" target="_blank">an additional $20 million in series C funding</a> in late September 2013. It also let go of CBS Interactive&#39;s ad inventory in June 2013 <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/twitch-bids-adieu-cbsi-ad-sales-150037" target="_blank">in order to pursue its own internal advertising ventures</a>.</p>
TechnologyesportsGamingGamingOnlineOnline GamingMichelle CastilloTwitchTwitch.tvVideoVideo GamesYoutubeMon, 19 May 2014 02:26:52 +0000157825 at http://www.adweek.comSpil Games Introducing New Targeted Video Ad Strategyhttp://www.adweek.com/videowatch/spil-games-introducing-new-targeted-video-ad-strategy-156693
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/spil_games.jpeg"> <p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/tweens-drawn-web-gaming-140001" target="_blank">Spil Games</a>, a gaming company that has already taken Europe by storm, is hoping to leverage its unique video ad opportunities to get to the next level with advertisers.</p>
<p>
Many casual online gamers are used to having to watch a short commercial in order to play the next round. The Netherlands-based group believes it&#39;s cracked the code and knows when to trigger these &ldquo;cliff-hanger&rdquo; video ads so they roll when the player is deep into their game&mdash;and unlikely to quit.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Casual gaming is one of the top activities that people give their precious time to do. It&rsquo;s a very mainstream activity for a whole lot of people. Any brand&#39;s audience is going to be into online gaming,&rdquo; Bas Seelen, vp of advertising, told Adweek.</p>
<p>
While the company won&rsquo;t share the exact formula, it disclosed it has to do with the length of gameplay and how far along the player has gotten. At a certain peak, it believes the gamer reaches their maximum happiness and, consequently, is the least likely to exit out of the game even if an ad comes on.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
The metrics were based on visitors who perused Spil&rsquo;s family of sites, which includes <a href="http://www.agame.com/" target="_blank">Agame</a>, <a href="http://www.a10.com/" target="_blank">A10</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.girlsgogames.com/" target="_blank">Girlsgogames</a>. The company said that about 200 million active monthly users visit its properties.</p>
<p>
What they found was gamer spent an average of 40 minutes each gaming session. And, while most people online would skip the 30-second ad roll if they had the chance, Spil gamers sat through the entire ad video 90 percent of the time so they could complete the game. Media mobile ad serving and analytics company Celtra Inc. pegged the average video ad completion rate at a little less than 50 percent.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;The casual gaming medium has been seen as cheap entertainment. Now they are seen as a viable entertainment category that is now driving the strategy,&rdquo; Reed Berglund, CEO for youth digital marketing team Full Bottle Group, said.</p>
<p>
Spil Games decided it wants to dive deeper into the ad game after it noticed advertisers diverting dollars away from broadcast spots toward new opportunities online. Spil Games itself has seen video ad-specific spending go up 500 percent over the last year. And, because many of its key properties serve a youth audience, it makes them highly lucrative.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We deliver the audience they (advertisers) are actually looking for,&rdquo; Seelen stated.</p>
<p>
Seelen said that part of what makes online gaming so unique is advertisers can really target their efforts towards a specific demographic. While TV ads play for whomever is watching, websites can provide specific details about who is sitting on the other side of the keyboard and what they are more likely to respond to.</p>
<p>
Other gaming-based media companies, like video platform&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/videowatch/video-game-streaming-site-twitch-goes-mobile-156381" target="_blank">Twitch</a>, have been able to turn gameplay into cash <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/engage-consumers-brain-chemistry-155531" target="_blank">thanks to their captive audiences</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Berglund said he believes Spil Games&rsquo; foray into specialized video advertising is just the beginning for online gaming.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;re going to see more video programing&mdash;actually programing in and around causal games. Advertisers can participate in personalizing within that content experience. You&rsquo;ll be seeing more inventory crop up outside the in-game inventory,&rdquo; he explained.&nbsp;</p>
Advertising & BrandingTechnologycasual gamingfull bottle groupOnlineOnline GamingMichelle CastilloVideoWed, 02 Apr 2014 12:59:09 +0000156693 at http://www.adweek.comMicrosoft Punishes Xbox Gamers Over Dirty Wordshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/microsoft-punishes-xbox-gamers-over-dirty-words-154120
Garett Sloane<p>
Watch your language while gaming with Microsoft. Today, the company had to admit to punishing Xbox One owners who cursed in videos posted on the platform.</p>
<p>
The new Xbox One went on sale last week, moving more than 1 million units, the first new video game console in almost a decade.</p>
<p>
Some gamers started complaining, however, when they got banned from Internet-connected activities through Xbox Live accounts&mdash;including the ability to upload videos to share clips and commentary from their games.</p>
<p>
If users curse in video comments they run the risk of getting blocked, which some participants say they found out without warning, according to <a href="http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_one_support/f/4274/t/1628408.aspx" target="_blank">Xbox message boards where members vented frustration</a>.</p>
<p>
The gaming community is not known for civility. Strangers can play from around the world thanks to the Web, and they can talk via headsets or text messaging&mdash;communications that can sometimes be caustic.</p>
<p>
The Upload Studio censorship could be Microsoft&rsquo;s attempts to combat vitriol on its new platform, but the temporary bans to users raised concerns that the company could implement similar blocks in its other services, such as Skype.</p>
<p>
In a statement today, Microsoft distinguished between moderating areas of Xbox Live and its policies regarding Skype.&nbsp;The company said it does not monitor &ldquo;peer-to-peer&rdquo; calls through Skype, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/25/microsoft-confirms-that-excessive-profanity-in-xbox-upload-studio-videos-can-cost-you-account-privileges/" target="_blank">in a statement</a> to TechCrunch.</p>
<p>
It did, however, confirm suspensions over conduct violations in Upload Studio.</p>
TechnologycensorshipCommentsGaminggaming bansMicrosoftGarett SloaneSkypeUpload Studioxbox contentxbox liveXbox OneMon, 25 Nov 2013 22:20:36 +0000154120 at http://www.adweek.comApp Lets Fans Play New Call of Duty Game With Their Sports Heroeshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/app-lets-fans-play-new-call-duty-game-their-sports-heroes-154097
Melissa Hoffmann<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/cod_nfl.jpeg"> <p>
Most gamers would say nothing beats the multiplayer experience&mdash;especially for a first-person shooter saga like <a href="http://www.adweek.com/topic/call-duty" target="_blank">Call of Duty</a>, which just released its tenth installment, Ghosts, to millions of devoted fans.</p>
<p>
Some of these devotees make a living playing for the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and major league soccer when they&#39;re not trying for headshots amongst their friends. This ubiquitous audience is at the core of a partnership between COD parent Activision and startup OverDog, which developed a mobile app to allow fans to play COD online with professional athletes.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Adrian Peterson is going to play Call of Duty this week anyway,&rdquo; noted Steve Berneman, CEO and co-founder of startup OverDog. Other athletes among the 300 participating are starting pitcher David Price, former NHL player Jeremy Roenick, the NBA&#39;s Patrick Beverly and soccer&rsquo;s Kei Kamara. Berneman admits that not all on the roster are as well-known as these players; it&#39;s a mix of rookies and all-stars.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;Athletes are very competitive, and they see it as another way to compete with each other and the people around them,&rdquo; added Dario Raciti, director of Zero Code, OMD&rsquo;s gaming specialty shop, which led planning for the campaign.</p>
<p>
When an athlete wants to play a game, he sends out a challenge via the app, which comes through as push notifications to those who&rsquo;ve downloaded it. Fans can accept the challenge and the app randomly selects a winner, who is then thrust into live gameplay with their sports heroes.</p>
<p>
And yes, through the multiplayer platforms of Xbox and PlayStation, the fan can ask the athlete absolutely anything.</p>
<p>
&ldquo;We listen in on these, and the first 30 seconds of the conversation are about the game, then the next couple minutes are stuff you&rsquo;d ask a pro athlete,&rdquo; Berneman said. &ldquo;Once we get through that, it&rsquo;s like a couple of 25-year-olds playing Call of Duty.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Peterson is a team player in more than one sense of the word. Not only is he participating on the gameplay front, but also joins four other NFL running backs&mdash;Marshawn Lynch, Willis McGahee, Jamaal Charles and Mark Ingram&mdash;in a new promotional video for the app, launching today. That video shows the football stars playing Ghosts with an actual fan, named Drew, who was organically contacted through the app.</p>
<p>
The athletes involved have also been promoting the effort on Twitter, which itself plays a huge marketing role in its longstanding popularity with athletes and their fans.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
So how did a startup like OverDog, which at first struggled to get its beta funding through Kickstarter (the resulting press helped it get some VC backing), manage to get such famous and expensive faces in its promo?</p>
<p>
Berneman wouldn&rsquo;t disclose the campaign&rsquo;s budget, but said OverDog got the athletes at a &quot;significantly less expensive&quot; rate than your typical endorsement arrangement.</p>
<p>
It&rsquo;s for the same reason, he said, that the core idea was so appealing in the first place: the pro athletes are already playing the game. &ldquo;Rather than sign a large promotional deal, what we organize is a game these guys play at their house,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We work really hard to make sure it&rsquo;s not hard work.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Here&#39;s a look at the first spot, released today:</p>
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dibl0hviezM?list=UUilQhEuP5Cvtp-WNCgmiVaA" width="652"></iframe></p>
TechnologyActivisionAdrian PetersonAppsCall of DutyCall of Duty: GhostsMelissa HoffmannGamingJamaal CharlesMark IngramMarshawn LynchMlbNflNhlOnline GamingOverDogPlaystationSports MarketingWillis McGaheeXboxMon, 25 Nov 2013 18:53:00 +0000154097 at http://www.adweek.comChris Bosh Has a Media Planhttp://www.adweek.com/news/television/chris-bosh-has-media-plan-148743
Emma Bazilian<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/info-diet-chris-bosh-hed-2013.jpg"> <p>
<img alt="" src="/files/uploads/SPACER-652.gif" style="width: 10px; height: 1px; " /><br />
<strong>Age </strong>29<br />
<strong>Accomplishments</strong> Power forward-center for the Miami Heat, currently the defending NBA champions (<a href="http://www.nba.com/heat/2013-playoffs-home" target="_blank">currently in the first round of the playoffs</a>); eight-time NBA All-Star; gold medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing<br />
<strong>Bases </strong>Miami and Dallas<br />
<br />
<strong>What&rsquo;s the first information you consume in the morning?</strong><br />
I&rsquo;m old-fashioned&mdash;I like to eat my breakfast and watch the news on CNN in the mornings, usually with my son and my daughter if they&rsquo;re around. It gets my day going.<br />
<br />
<strong>What occupies your mind in the car?</strong><br />
I always listen to music. Some days, it might be R&amp;B, some days it might be hip-hop if I&rsquo;m feeling like I need energy, some days jazz or classical if I want to feel peaceful or I want to think.<br />
<br />
<strong>Are you a TV junkie? What do you watch, and how?</strong><br />
Yeah, me and my wife watch TV shows all the time. I&rsquo;ve been watching Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy and Nashville. I&rsquo;m really excited about Game of Thrones, too. When I&rsquo;m at home, I watch shows on the TV, but when I&rsquo;m on the road, it&rsquo;s all about the laptop.<br />
<br />
<strong>Before bed, do you bite into a novel, graze on Twitter or fast until morning?</strong><br />
I read books or I watch TV. Right now, I&rsquo;m reading a book called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastery_(book)" target="_blank">Mastery by Robert Greene</a>. It&rsquo;s about masters of the past, like Leonardo da Vinci or Benjamin Franklin, and it dissects what they did and the tools that they used to get what they wanted. [Greene] has written a series of books that are all really cool.<br />
<br />
<strong>What magazines do you read?</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/201201/chris-bosh-miami-heat-interview-style" target="_blank">GQ</a>, Time, The Economist and Wired are my main ones. It&rsquo;s tough to keep up sometimes because I&rsquo;m on the road, and I&rsquo;ll come back and have two issues of each that I&rsquo;ve got to read.<br />
<br />
<strong>What&rsquo;s your biggest digital indulgence?</strong><br />
My biggest digital indulgence, I&rsquo;d say, is online gaming. I play sports games&mdash;Madden or NBA 2K.<br />
<br />
<strong>Is it weird to play a video game version of basketball?</strong><br />
It was, but you get used to it after a while. The weirdest part is when there&rsquo;s a character version of you that doesn&rsquo;t look like you&mdash;I&rsquo;m like, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t do that move&rdquo; or &ldquo;Man, that&rsquo;s my ranking? I&rsquo;m way better than that!&rdquo; It&rsquo;s funny. But I don&rsquo;t usually play as myself because if I do, I&rsquo;m giving myself the ball every time.<br />
<br />
<strong>Give us the skinny on your favorite app.</strong><br />
<a href="http://web.stagram.com/n/ChrisBosh/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. I like that it lets people really communicate with their pictures, and they get really creative with it. You don&rsquo;t have to actually say anything. I&rsquo;m a visual person, so to see pictures and real-time information, it&rsquo;s really cool.<br />
<br />
<strong>With such a bloated media universe, how do you cut out the fat?</strong><br />
I think it&rsquo;s easier if you know what you like. I don&rsquo;t just look at things just to look at them. If I want to know about sports or the news or fashion, I&rsquo;m very specific with what websites I go to, what apps I use or who I follow. I just try to make sure I always have a plan.</p>
TelevisionBreaking BadChris BoshCnnGame of ThronesGQEmma BazilianMagazine Contentmiami heatNashvilleNbaNBA 2KOnline GamingSons of AnarchyTelevisionTime EconomistWiredFri, 26 Apr 2013 03:24:20 +0000148743 at http://www.adweek.com